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Yeah, my strategy for handling Trelawney is just: (depending on resources/start) Immediately in old world take primary island + a secondary. (even teritary if I can grab ol' Farty and buy some steel beams.) and build up to artisans so that the Cape unlocks and I can get some money flow. Then I head to Crown Falls and just don't touch the old world again other than making sure it's ready militarily. (First island always produces weapons alongside steel. And each island has some resources manually plopped in so that I can slam down harbor defences if anyone declares war.) It helps a lot with setting it up asap. And I usually slap down 4-5 forester's huts on the cape immediately, and I'll just be building up crown falls as fast as the resources come in for a while. Then slowly I'll push the lower population tiers off to their own islands, along with their production once I have the influence surplus and commuter piers. My main downfall is always trying to landgrab ahead of the competitors, because that just burns through influence. I really wish there was a trader npc on the Cape as well(Nate doesn't count), having to perpetually bounce back and forth to check for people + artefacts etc is kind of bothersome. Something like a grand bazaar you could build, where the various trade NPCs set up shop to buy and sell stuff for a period would be great. e: loving hell. How did I not notice this before? Old Nate has both a trading post -and- that transmuting thing. Sells treasure charts n poo poo. SubNat fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 14:07
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I ideally landgrab as follows: Old World, grab big secondary island to build up to investor pop, while keeping my starter island as a forge island. Beeline to steel then settle at least one of every other resource. Then I start landgrabbing for resources, not square footage. It's the size of the island, not the resources, which determines the influence cost of settling it. So that little pissant island with 2 iron, 2 coal and a zinc is a better deal than some big honking island with more potatoes and some limestone. But when in doubt, take it. I can recoup influence cost by demolishing the pier and abandoning the island at any time. If I can settle islands in a chain that allows me to send my ships to the other maps without crossing over enemy territory, I'll also consider that a worthwhile investment. New World, grab all of it. I'll prioritize better islands over worse, but I'll empty Sarmento's free clipper on islands and usually send another boat with more planks and steel to grab some more. New World resources are a bottleneck for late game expansion, and I will go to war over them eventually. Trawleney, more conservative. Ignore the coast and grab a good-sized forge island which has red peppers, furs, whatever else the Cape is lacking. Then I'll snap up the little islands nearest to the Cape itself so that if war breaks out I can secure the trade lanes in and out of the map. If the AI wants to grab islands way down on the other side of the map, I won't care. As long as I can get a forge island and a clear line of sailing west and south, I let the AI have the rest. Arctic, grab all of it. The islands are cheap and I'd rather grab them all and abandon later. Of course, playing with Von Malching makes this diplomatic suicide. And I haven't really tried this sort of territorial aggression with AIs more advanced than Gasparov. I usually won't settle Cape Falls until after I've grabbed all my land on all the maps. The 100+ influence investment and distraction is just not worth it, since I usually have some intricate plan for the big city.
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Jan 11, 2020 16:40
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If Im looking for a game like Banished but challenging and with more spinning plates, this is it, right?
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Jan 28, 2020 04:34
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Control Volume posted:If Im looking for a game like Banished but challenging and with more spinning plates, this is it, right? yes
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Jan 28, 2020 05:00
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Control Volume posted:If Im looking for a game like Banished but challenging and with more spinning plates, this is it, right? The gameplay isn't super similar, Dawn of Man and Surviving Mars are more what comes to mind for Banished gameplay, but the overall concept of build settlement > make stuff > improve settlement > repeat is the same. Anno is much larger scale and it can either be extremely chill or a never-ending clusterfuck depending on the difficulty options you choose. There are a whole lotta plates you can get spinning at once though, that's for sure.
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Jan 28, 2020 06:40
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Im all for a neverending clusterfuck of way too many systems all working in tandem to gently caress everything up
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Jan 28, 2020 07:46
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Control Volume posted:If Im looking for a game like Banished but challenging and with more spinning plates, this is it, right? This game'll spin plates at you until the cows come home. And then it throw more plates at you. It'll smash your teeth in with more plates. They'll drop a greek weddings worth of smashed plates at you. While you're knocked silly by the plate attack, it'll secretly transfer the deed to you for plate spinning factory. And then ask you to spin plates in other parts of the world, different kinds of swarthy plates that spin in different ways.
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Jan 28, 2020 07:50
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I think this is a little more reminiscent of Tropic series game play but without the traffic simulator and hard supply chain requirements thrown in a little like Factorio, but obviously without all the conveyor belt stuff. Just the ratios, etc. That's very much a thing.
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Jan 28, 2020 16:19
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There's many similarities between Tropico and Anno, but Anno is by far the "better" citybuilder imo - by which I mean that in Tropico you're not allowed to make mistakes, or better it's incredibly costly to fix up your mistakes which usually ends up making the late-game a major clusterfuck of half-assed zones built in different times and with different objectives/plans, and it's not even easy to plan in advance. Actually I believe most of Tropico's challenge comes from that "oh God I had to build the city this way because things were not unlocked earlier and now I have to band-aid it and try to force it to work because I can't just bulldoze/move things" feeling, because keeping happiness / approval high surely isn't a problem - and the fact that the campaign puts a LOT of "no you can't do this" or "you have to do that thing you'd never do normally, no way around it" just goes to show that the challenge is in overcoming this kind of messes as they pop up rather than careful planning or re-organizing your production and infrastructure. Anno, besides giving back all the money when you demolish on easier difficulties, has blueprint mode which is a Godsend for this "problem", and not having to micromanage traffic and AI (over which you have absolutely no control so you have to influence it indirectly in Tropico...) is actually good because you can focus on optimizing and growing. Both games are pretty bad at doing military/combat stuff but at least you have SOME control over it in Anno, but I don't like it anyway so tend to play Anno with friendly AIs and have not much insight to offer there. I'd say that "story" and zany-funny-stuff are better in Tropico but overall gameplay and polish is much better in Anno
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Jan 28, 2020 16:42
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I wish they'd let you put down blueprints for future tiers in Anno - right now I just put layers upon layers of dirt roads around the center of my city at the start of the game to make sure I never use the space for anything else.
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Jan 28, 2020 16:47
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Thom12255 posted:I wish they'd let you put down blueprints for future tiers in Anno - right now I just put layers upon layers of dirt roads around the center of my city at the start of the game to make sure I never use the space for anything else. Yeah it’d be cool to have a true Creative mode.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:02
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That's even sorta realistic tho. I'm for it. I really wish that the town halls weren't actively in opposition to being near civic structures though. And before anyone gives me any guff, House buffs forever and ever, 100 years house buffs, house buff time~
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Jan 28, 2020 17:29
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Well I bought this game, and apparently I already own 2070. Its been so long since I had uplay installed lol. I really like the tropico aesthetic of having some cobbled-together helltown that outgrew itself almost immediately, and Ill probably play this the same way even if it lets you restructure things
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Jan 29, 2020 02:42
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Control Volume posted:Well I bought this game, and apparently I already own 2070. Its been so long since I had uplay installed lol. I really like the tropico aesthetic of having some cobbled-together helltown that outgrew itself almost immediately, and Ill probably play this the same way even if it lets you restructure things
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Jan 29, 2020 03:04
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Control Volume posted:Well I bought this game, and apparently I already own 2070. Its been so long since I had uplay installed lol. I really like the tropico aesthetic of having some cobbled-together helltown that outgrew itself almost immediately, and Ill probably play this the same way even if it lets you restructure things Oh don't let my earlier description discourage you. I also tend to play that way. It's just that in Tropico there is no solution to the cobbled-togheter helltown, because that's all the game has to offer basically in Anno, once you're done cobbling togheter your helltown, THEN starts the optimization game - can I move all the sausage and soap production to another island so my main island is more beautiful? Do I have enough trade ships to ferry goods back and forth? Can I make a huge farmer-only island with a commuter pier that supplies workforce to all farms across the entire map? This is completely absent in Tropico, and while I enjoy it, I think I'm pretty much done with it whereas I still have LOTS of things to do in Anno (didn't even get to investors or properly building up the huge Cape Trelawney island, lol)
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Jan 29, 2020 09:41
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TheDeadlyShoe posted:That's even sorta realistic tho. I'm for it. Oh absolutely. I don't optimize it that hard but let's compare: -Dude that makes my church free and have +10% range, saving something like 100 coins in upkeep -Dude that makes my workers and artisans pay +5 coins per house AND satisfies their beer need Even if I somehow fail tot get 20 houses in the town hall's radius I'm still coming out ahead with beer dude because I have to make less beer for the city. He also likely satisfies the workers' need for schnapps too.
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Jan 29, 2020 12:26
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Town halls are crazy powerful for 20 influence and I try to organize everything around town hall radii. Town hall surrounded by houses, surrounded by services, then link to the next radius. I'd go so far as to say that need satisfaction specialists make late endgame investor cities possible at all, for example there's that pipe-smokin' Mr. Garrick that eliminates gold consumption entirely by fulfilling jewelry and pocket watch needs at once.
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Jan 29, 2020 17:28
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I've got 90 hours in this game as I've barely ever interacted with the collection buildings or played around with unions/halls, I probably should do that.
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Jan 29, 2020 17:53
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Ive sussed out that distance between houses and work areas dont matter, but do production buildings have to pull from discrete warehouses? i.e. if I have a wheat farm and a mill halfway across the island, will the mill still be able to produce? Or do warehouse resources just get stuck into a global pool?
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Jan 29, 2020 23:25
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warehouses are universal across an island. effectively, all goods are stored in the dock warehouse, and all other warehouses on the island act as teleporter gates enabling access to the dock warehouse. Note that it's still usually faster for a producer to pull directly from another producer, ie wheat farm -> cart -> mill vs wheat farm -> cart -> warehouse -> cart -> mill
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Jan 29, 2020 23:33
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Control Volume posted:Ive sussed out that distance between houses and work areas dont matter, but do production buildings have to pull from discrete warehouses? i.e. if I have a wheat farm and a mill halfway across the island, will the mill still be able to produce? Or do warehouse resources just get stuck into a global pool? Any resource in inventory can be pulled from any warehouse. It has to be loaded at and moved from that location, to be unloaded at the requesting location, and it is much more time-efficient for the delivery cart from a producer to just go to a consumer and unload. But not vital; just make sure you have enough warehouses around factory groupings to not slow down production with the extra logistics time and you will be good. It’s a LOT of warehouses. Probably more than you’re thinking when you read that.
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Jan 29, 2020 23:34
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Control Volume posted:Ive sussed out that distance between houses and work areas dont matter, but do production buildings have to pull from discrete warehouses? i.e. if I have a wheat farm and a mill halfway across the island, will the mill still be able to produce? Or do warehouse resources just get stuck into a global pool? Warehouse inventory is shared across an island with no transportation time.
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Jan 29, 2020 23:41
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Control Volume posted:Ive sussed out that distance between houses and work areas dont matter, but do production buildings have to pull from discrete warehouses? i.e. if I have a wheat farm and a mill halfway across the island, will the mill still be able to produce? Or do warehouse resources just get stuck into a global pool? Warehouses are basically teleporters that provide access to Ware-space. Anything in a Warehouse is instantly accessible from any and other warehouse on the same island. So yes, the mill will be able to pull wheat from the warehouse as soon as the wheat is placed in the warehouse on the other side of the island. The only limitation is how many carts can unload into/load from a warehouse at once. Also it's cheaper/more cost-efficient to just use more warehouses than to upgrade one if you need more loading and unloading spaces. It's not a huge, game-ending cost but it is something to keep an eye out for. Only really upgrade warehouses if you're running out of space in an area or your main port building on an island (because that also upgrades the island's storage capacity). You may also want to upgrade a heavily industrialized area once you get power, any building that's boosted by power gets little early potato truck that moves and unloads/loads at double speed to make up for their factory's doubled speed so each warehouse slot goes twice as far.
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Jan 29, 2020 23:43
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Thanks! Thinking of the harbor being the real storage, and the warehouses being shortcuts is probably the best way for me to conceptualize it. I just wanted to make sure I wouldnt be screwing myself by sticking a sawmill halfway across the map lol
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Jan 30, 2020 00:29
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Oh jesus there are so many things to keep track of now
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Jan 30, 2020 11:33
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Control Volume posted:Oh jesus there are so many things to keep track of now So what did you get to? The needs of new promotion levels? The new zone(s)? Electricity? The last one I feel is where 95% of games are restarted. Also little hint: citizens only need the goods and services their level and the one below. Farmers and Workers work well together because both need Farmer goods. But once you get to Artisans, they no longer need Farmer stuff (i.e. no need for work clothes or fish), and likewise Engineer means no more drain on your Worker goods and Investors mean no need for Artisan goods.
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Jan 30, 2020 12:55
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Electricity is honestly pretty bad. Its requirements and positioning are pretty different from everything else and can feel like bullshit when you are still juggling the earlier plates. Actually if anyone has tips on how to efficiently and painlessly integrate electricity in their cities, pls share  Oh and is there a way to ONLY play on the big trelawney island? I always still neglect it because I'm too busy fixing up my original island(s)
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Jan 30, 2020 13:42
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You're like "Oh it doubles production for any mine/quarry/production building that doesn't require it and enables some others. Simple enough right?" And sure it takes a bit of work and a fuckton of resources to set up...but that's fine and to be expected to be honest. And for a bit you're happy. Suddenly you've got a whole bunch of spare cash and free workers to upgrade since you cut a huge chunk of your production lines in literal half. Then you start getting the optimization twitch. And everything goes out the window. And then you smash the window when you realize it's a requirement for Engineers and Investors and you start looking at making room for a power plant/oil line to your rich fucker district.
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Jan 30, 2020 13:52
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TorakFade posted:Electricity is honestly pretty bad. Its requirements and positioning are pretty different from everything else and can feel like bullshit when you are still juggling the earlier plates. Step one is to reserve a train path from your dock area to the oil fields while laying out your home island. I like to make a 3-width road, or just 2 roads flanking empty land. Step two is to leave a useable gap for a couple blocks of industry buildings between your docks and the start of urban development (like 12-20 tiles). I usually stick Artisan-level industries here. Step three is to use my first powerplant to electrify these industries and a few blocks of houses. If you place it right, this also lets you have electricity for your port so you can make a steam shipyard. Step 2.5 is to consider your oil layout on your home island, cuz you need 3 wells per power plant and its pretty rare for you to get 6 useable wells. So you are gonna need that steam shipyard to get more plants up so you can electrify your steel industry etc. TheDeadlyShoe fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 13:53
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A few thoughts to add to what TheDeadlyShoe said: * A market is roughly the same size and has the same service radius as a power plant. Going into planning mode and laying down a planned market can let you see where it needs to be to reach the coastline and then where your industry needs to go to be easily electrified later. * Your oil dock doesn’t have to be on or near the same coast as your starting dock warehouse. In fact, it’s probably better to be on a different coast so that you can lay in coastal industries that benefit from electricity (a steam shipyard first and foremost). * Unlike TheDeadlyShoe, I tend to make my first power plant be entirely industrial, and then build to a second plant that is in the middle of my city to electrify as much as possible. I generally lay my cities out as circles around the marketplace with a stripe in the middle for service buildings; I then try to take out a single column of houses to lay a rail line perpendicular to the stripe of service buildings. But I’m going for as many investors as possible, usually; TheDeadlyShoe’s hybrid approach is much better for unlocking things quickly.
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Jan 30, 2020 14:21
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So here's a question. Let's say i'm looking at creating oil production on Trelawney's big isle. Likewise, the oil wells are really far the gently caress away from the coastal warehouse. We're talking like on a cliff segregated from the rest of the isle by a small gap, at the bottom of the isle up high, with the only access point being at least midway up, forcing you to go over multiple bridges, a massive amount of land, and forcing you to back down again once you get onto the cliffs. The cost is literally hundreds of steel. More than even Trelawney would hold in one construction binge. This isn't a problem. Steel is easy to produce even without electricity if you know what you're doing. As a plus side, all seven wells are right near each other. So one well has like 400-500% efficiency even without setting up a union to boost them. That being said, i've noticed the game says that my tracks are in use and it implies that a second train won't be dispatched even if they're both going to the same depot. Would the fix then be to create two railways connected to each other like this? | | | | #> ^ Where ^ is the oil storage, # is the "crossroads" that leads into the second parallel track, and the > is the track going over to start the second track? I'm not sure if the trains will actually use it, so I want to know before I expand the second track more than I have. Alternatively, if a second train won't be dispatched at all using this system how do I get more out onto the tracks? The sheer distance means that I need my depot of trains active more than just one at a time to ensure that all the sites get electricity or storage. Edit: Also, how far is the AI going to tech up to combat ship wise? Is it eventually just going to cheat it's way up to straight steam based battleships all the time? Or does it have a cap based on it's output somewhere? Archonex fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Jan 30, 2020 |
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Jan 30, 2020 14:57
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I always build dual tracks for just that reason and make sure to have plenty of input/exit options for trains that fill up and need to leave on the oil well side. The AI will use it. Though sometimes it will still decide a track is occupied even though it should be able to path around.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:16
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Re electricity, remember there are items you can loot or build at Old Nate's, equipped in trade unions/harbormaster offices, which provide electrification. These have the downside of increasing fire risk and causing random explosions. But multiple overlapping firehouses do provide cumulative reduction in that fire chance and explosion risk. Longterm, this is arguably break even or better than the expense of an oil power plant and the continued drain on the oil supply because remember, this is electricity with zero consumption and no train tracks, fewer explosions in old world oil refineries and less influence spent on oil tankers. You'll still need oil for residential needs, but industrial you can opt out of the oil game if you want.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:10
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Or you can go to the arctic and get natural gas for your power needs. Both work.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:17
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Alkydere posted:So what did you get to? The needs of new promotion levels? The new zone(s)? Electricity? The new zones lol. Im not giving up on poo poo until this campaign is complete or I get mired in unrecoverable bankruptcy
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Jan 31, 2020 00:17
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Completed the campaign, eat poo poo unrecoverable bankruptcy! Im still constantly learning things that are basic, like being able to adjust the output rate of specific buildings or that you can get more storage space with depots lol
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Feb 3, 2020 00:49
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Control Volume posted:Completed the campaign, eat poo poo unrecoverable bankruptcy! Im still constantly learning things that are basic, like being able to adjust the output rate of specific buildings or that you can get more storage space with depots lol Oh absolutely. This game has so many little hidden sliders and such that, while not needed, are so very useful if you want to fine tune stuff. Even now I still find stuff and almost always it's "Oh that's nifty!" and never "Wow wish I'd known that was there before". Hint: at the bottom left corner of the build menu on the bottom of the screen you can click a button to change how everything's organized. So you can alternate between ctizen level (farmer/worker/artisan/engineer/fat cats) and instead go by category (city/material/consumable/harbor/culture)
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Feb 3, 2020 13:44
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Alkydere posted:Hint: at the bottom left corner of the build menu on the bottom of the screen you can click a button to change how everything's organized. So you can alternate between ctizen level (farmer/worker/artisan/engineer/fat cats) and instead go by category (city/material/consumable/harbor/culture) what
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Feb 3, 2020 15:11
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It’s amazingly useful when you’re looking to decorate some areas and don’t want to jump between levels to get different types of trees to lay down
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Feb 3, 2020 18:42
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I started up a playthrough and Im using all my money to overwork and brutally oppress the working class to pump out weapons so I can pump out frigates so I can murder every other motherfucker in the ocean next to me. If they wanted a variety of pretty trees maybe they should have been born with ownership of their own island
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Feb 4, 2020 01:04
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